Mandeville Moments -- Saints make us all feel like winners

You know football season has to be close when everywhere you go, people are talking about our beloved New Orleans Saints.

New Orleans Saints Coach Sean Payton, who lives in Mandeville, is one of the many reasons locals can take pride in the football team (and themselves.)

Fresh off the first Super Bowl victory in the franchise’s often spotty history, people I know (and some I don’t) are asking me what I think the Saints’ chances are to repeat this season.

I hear it when I get my hair cut. I hear it when my wife and I head out for a bite to eat. I hear it standing in line at the convenience store.

My answer hasn’t changed since Saints’ cornerback Tracey Porter snared an errant pass from New Orleans native Peyton Manning (he of Indianapolis Colts fame) and ran back the interception for a game-changing touchdown.

I say this to all who ask: "I have no idea, but I sure would like to see it happen again."

Good times

Think back to the days leading up to the Super Bowl and the weeks that followed. People walked with extra spring in their steps. They wrung their hands when the Saints trailed in the first half and rejoiced (if they didn’t go into shock) when the final seconds ticked off the clock to clinch the Lombardi Trophy for the boys in black and gold.

Quarterback

Drew Brees, who could run for governor and win in a landslide, was everywhere — television, magazine covers, radio, Disney World. Who knows? Maybe the leaders of the Crescent City commissioned a statue of him to be built and later erected outside the Superdome.

Saints’ Coach Sean Payton, who happens to call the north shore home, shared similar spoils as Brees. He wrote a book about the season that wound up on the New York Times Best Seller List.

Oh, and so did Brees. And when he was on the north shore a couple weeks ago to sign copies at a local bookstore, fans camped out for several days to be among the lucky few to share a moment with the superstar slinger.

For days after the Super Bowl win, we had similar crowds of people waiting outside our offices for hours — each wanting to get copies of the paper that heralded to all that the Saints had indeed arrived.

The one-word headline on those papers?

"Amen."

It was a perfect time and one that I surely will not forget.

Saints keep helping La.

But there has been plenty more to occupy our thoughts in recent months. The national recession continues. The fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which wrecked so much and so many, looms. And, of course, a certain oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico continues to threaten our existence here on the coast.

But with each of these things, the Saints have used their celebrity status to help. There have been goodwill travels to coastal towns that turned into virtual ghost towns (if not for the hundreds of workers there to clean up the mess in the Gulf). Closer to home, Saints tight ends coach

Terry Malone, along with his wife Ann, organized a food drive in May that benefited the Covington Food Bank. And earlier this month, the Malones coordinated a fundraiser in which people could have their photos taken with his Saints championship ring, with those proceeds benefiting the food bank.

So when people ask me if the Saints are going to win another Super Bowl, I don’t think it’s a matter of bringing home another Lombardi Trophy. Of course, we’d all like to see that — no one more than the members of the Saints organization.

But we, as members of the south Louisiana populace, have every reason to believe that we already are winners, thanks in part to the New Orleans Saints and the pride they’ve helped instill in each of us.